Here and Now
by Half-Breed Ghost
Summary: A fire destroys Miranda's past and all she has known. Now, all she has left is a recurring nightmare of that fateful evening to tell her who she is and where she came from. HPxOC RWxHG


hey everyone! this is my first HP fic, so I really don't want any flames, okay? I want to thank my editor, SpicySugar! She says to check out her new story, "Easier to Run"

Disclaimer: She don't own Harry potter (but wishes she did, man)

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_13 Years Ago_

_It was early in the evening at 1435 Sandsbury Lane. The twilight sky was calm and peaceful. Mourning doves were singing their lonely song to the sky, and the breeze blew the scent of jasmine around the earth. Two children were playing in the backyard of an English country home, with fireflies blinking their lights on and off, flying around them. Their young faces glowed with delight as they chased after the small insects. One was a young boy, Daniel, (eight years old) with curly blonde hair and bright blue eyes. The other was a girl, Miranda (three years old), with straight strawberry-blonde hair and deep green eyes. A white cat was following the girl everywhere she went, darting back and forth across the lawn after the playful youngster. A man, Nathan, with curly strawberry-blonde hair and blue eyes and a woman, Hillary, with straight blonde hair and green eyes were watching the two children while sitting on a wooden swing with a look of happiness on their faces. She leaned against him, and he put his arm around her shoulders. They both sighed happily. _

"_Alright you two! Time to go inside and get ready for bed." Nathan said, removing his arm from his wife's shoulders and standing up. The two children groaned in protest. "Ah, ah, ah! I'll have none of that." _

"_Your father's right, you two. It's time for bed." Hillary said, standing up and walking towards the children. She picked up the girl and carried her inside. The boy followed, and stopped to look back at his father. _

"_You coming, Papa?" the boy said, stretching his hand out to his father. He looked down at his son and nodded. _

"_Yes. I'm coming." He walked over to his son and knelt down beside him. He could tell that something was going to happen tonight…something that would change his children's lives forever. "Son, you know that if anything happens to me and your mother, you must take care of your sister, right?"_

_The boy nodded. "Is something going to happen tonight, Papa?" he asked, his eyes full of seriousness. _

"_I think…I can sense something malevolent in the air."_

"_Okay. I'll look after her."_

"_Good lad."_

"_Papa?"_

"_Hmm?"_

"_What 'malevo-min-lent'?"_

_Nathan smiled a sad smile. "It means 'something very bad'."_

"_Oh." _

_Nathan laughed as he took his son's hand and walked into the house, not knowing the terrible tragedy that was about to take place._

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_Later that night, Hillary was carrying a sleeping Miranda up the stairs to the children's bedroom, Nathan and Daniel following them. They all walked into the dimly lit room, Hillary placed Miranda into her crib and tucked her in gently. Daniel climbed into what he called his "big boy bed" and Nathan pulled the covers up to Daniel's chin. Then, he and Hillary began walking out of the room._

"_Good night Danny-boy. I love you," Hillary said, turning to look at her son. _

"_Love you too, Mama." Daniel replied, growing sleepier by the minute._

"_Good night Dan. Love you." Nathan said, looking from his son to the crib where his daughter was sleeping peacefully. He dare not tell Hillary what he felt, as it was bad enough that he told Dan. She would worry too much, and he didn't want to do that to her. She already had enough to be thinking about. _

"_Love you too, Papa." Came a sleepy reply from Daniel's bed._

_Nathan closed the door, and he and Hillary walked down the hallway, down the stairs, and into the living room. _

"_You want me to make some tea, Nathan?" Hillary said, putting her hand on her husband's shoulder. Something was amiss, she could tell. "You've been distracted all day."_

"_Just thinking, Hill." He replied, taking his wife's hand in his own. _

"_About what?"_

"_Nothing important…just wondering when I'm going to get my father's wand shop." He said, chuckling. Hillary began to giggle._

"_Yeah, we know that the old bloke isn't going to die anytime soon." She replied with a laugh. They both walked into the kitchen, and Hillary noticed something out the window. _

"_Nathan, do you see that?" she said, pointing out the window._

"_See what?" he asked, following his wife's gaze. Then he saw it. A dark figure, standing in the middle of the yard with a wand in his hand. The wand had red sparks shooting out the tip and the figure pointed it towards the house. _

"_Hillary, get down!" Nathan shouted and pushed her to the floor. Not even half a second later, a stream of fire shot into the small kitchen through the window, breaking it. Glass flew everywhere._

_Daniel sat up in bed. Something was wrong. He got out of bed and slowly walked towards the door. Miranda stirred and then sat up as well, staring at her big brother. She stood up in her crib, and grabbed the railing in her tiny hands._

"_No, Mira. You can't get out of bed now." He said, looking at her in the dim light of the nightlight. Miranda shook her head and pushed the railing down. Daniel looked at her in awe._

"_How did you do that?" he asked in amazement, and Miranda simply replied with a giggle._

_Nathan and Hillary crawled into the living room, and they both stood up. _

"_What are we going to do Nathan!" she asked, her eyes filled with terror._

"_You need to get Miranda and Daniel out of here."_

"_What about you?" _

"_I'm going to try and stop whoever is doing this. It's probably just some punk teenager anyway, just trying to show off." He said, his voice stricken with panic and worry. He must keep Hillary calm, because, if neither of them were, it would mean disaster. _

_Daniel took Miranda's hand, and they both walked down the hallway. Their mother was running up the stairs, and she grabbed both of them in her arms. She ran to the stairway and stopped. There was an orange glow coming from the sitting room by the kitchen. She turned around and ran to the back stairway, but she saw a glow from there too. So, with no other option, she ran into her bedroom, closed the door behind her, opened a window, and looked both of her children straight in the eye. _

"_You two need to get to Hogwarts as fast as you can, you hear me? You need to take the train from Platform 9 ¾ and find your Grandfather. He'll be there this year, and he'll take care of you."_

"_But, what about you Mama?" Daniel said, grabbing his mother's hand. Tears welled in Hillary's eyes, and she couldn't find the words to say._

"_Mama, what's wrong?" asked Miranda, oblivious to what was going on. Hillary took both of them in her arms and hugged both of them very tightly. Flames licked at the door to the bedroom, threatening to enter._

"_I love you both very much." She whispered. "Please live long and happy lives, and never forget about me or your Papa. We'll always be with you, no matter what." Then, taking a wand off her nightstand, pointed it at the children._

"_Wingardium Leviosa" she whispered, and levitated her children out the window, and onto the street two stories below. She prepared to jump out, but the flames burst through the door at that moment, and quickly consumed the whole room._

_Daniel and Miranda watched in horror as the only home they ever knew burst into flames. They heard a scream, and knew who it was right away._

"_Mama!" Miranda screamed as she tried to tug her arm free of her brother's grip. _

"_MAMA!"_

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_Present Day, 13 years later, in a forest outside of Hogwarts…_

Cold sweat beaded Miranda's forehead as she sat upright. These nightmares had been haunting her for the past few years, and they got more vivid each time. Her breathing was very fast and she looked around the small cave that she had called "home" ever since before she could remember. Everything was still the same. She stood up, yawned and stretched.

"Are you okay, Miranda?" came a voice from the cave entrance.

"I'm fine, Merimas." She replied, pulling a t-shirt over her head, and then jeans over her legs. She was buttoning and zippering them as she replied, "I just had a nightmare." Then she pulled a black robe over her shoulders, with a yellow crest that had a badger on it.

"Was is the same one you've had for years?"

"Yes."

Miranda walked outside and looked at her friend. From the waist upwards, he looked like a very well toned young man with wispy sandy blonde hair, and from the waist downwards he had the body of a buckskin stallion, complete with a flowing black tail.

"Other than that, did you sleep well?"

Miranda shrugged. "As well as one can sleep on a cave floor."

Merimas laughed. "I suppose that's true. You ready to go get breakfast?"

"Definitely." She replied, climbing on Merimas's back.

"Okay then. Off we go!" he said, taking off towards Hogwarts.

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"I can't wait to start Advanced Ancient Runes today!" Hermione Granger chirped as she, Harry Potter, and Ron Weasley walked down the stairs that led to the Great Hall.

"I don't even want to think about starting Advanced Potions." Ron shuddered. "I should have purposely done worse on my O.W.L."

"Well, I hope the class isn't too bad Ron." Harry replied, placing his hand on his friend's shoulder.

"How can it not be 'too bad'? Snape _hates_ us."

"Well, that's true…"

They slowed down a little as they got closer to the Great Hall, but Harry almost stopped when he saw a girl turn to walk down a different hallway. But, as luck would have it, Filch spotted her.

"You there! Stop!" he shouted. The girl turned, looked at him, and then began to run down the hallway. Harry shook his head. She wouldn't be able to get away from Filch. But, come to think of it, he'd never seen that girl before. She could've been a First Year…if she didn't look the same age as Harry was. His curiosity was piqued now. He slowly broke away from the crowd going to breakfast, and followed Filch and the new girl down the hallway.

(MO)

Miranda looked back at the man chasing her. It would be easy to get away from him. He looked like he was about 500 years old anyway. Then she turned around and tripped over something small and very fuzzy. It was a cat! Miranda stared at it. The thing looked like it had never been cleaned in its whole lifetime! She heard loud footsteps, and looked up to see the man that had been chasing her. She sighed and rolled her eyes. This was just _great_. All she wanted was some food, but would this guy let her go and get some? Of course not. She stood up and dusted off her robes.

"You there! Stop!" he said again, running up to her. She stayed where she was, wondering what the fuss was all about.

"Yes, sir?" she said, and flipped her hair over her shoulder.

"I've never seen you here afore. What's your name?" he asked. Miranda was silent. "I said, what's your name?"

Miranda was tempted to spit back at him, "Well, what's _your_ name?" but that would give away that she didn't go to Hogwarts, so she remained silent. How was she going to get out of _this_?

(HP)

Harry watched as the girl tried to get away from Filch, but she tripped over something in the hallway. It was Mrs. Norris, Filch's 800-year-old cat. He crept closer to them.

"What's your name?" he heard Filch ask. There was no reply. Harry grew a little worried. The girl had no idea who she was messing with. Filch could give her detention! Harry slowly pulled out his wand.

"_Stupefy!_" Harry shouted, pointing his wand at Filch. Filch immediately went stiff and fell to the ground. Harry walked up to Mrs. Norris, glared at her, and then planted his foot into her stomach, kicking her down the corridor (A/N: You've all been waiting for this, haven't you?). He looked around, and realized that the girl had run off. But he saw her robes float around the corner at the end of the corridor. He was about to follow her when…

"Hey Harry!" he heard Ron call. He sighed impatiently and turned around.

"Yeah Ron?"

"You coming or what? I'm hungry!"

Harry took one last look down the corridor before turning around and walking up to his friend.

(MO)

Miranda peeked around the corner, staring at the boy that saved her. He had black hair, and when he turned around, she saw that he had emerald green eyes. She immediately ducked back behind the corner. She wanted to thank him, but then he would ask her why she was here, and she couldn't tell him that she didn't go to this school at all. She was just here for food. For some reason, her cheeks felt warm. Was she blushing? She wouldn't know, as she didn't have anything to look at herself in. She turned and walked towards the kitchen, and she felt a smile spread across her face. As she approached the portrait to where the entrance to the kitchen was located, she wondered if she would ever see him again.

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A/N: Pwease reveiw! I hope that you like this story so far!


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